discussion Scammers

[Guest]

Have about 6 spam a day on average, all from companies in the US.
If you unsubscribe you have to go to a second site who does the listings, I just delete.
Mostly the right to bare arms, roof gutter mesh and some court case against Johnson and Johnson!

 

[Gern]

My email doesn't have an automatic spam deletion as far as I know, but I do junk all the mails without opening them. I wonder how much good it would do if I forwarded all the mails to the respective companies they're supposed to represent with a message saying that's why I'll never buy their products?

 

[Guest]

The trouble with doing that is that you've confirmed that yours is a valid email address with a person attached to it, so they can send you even more from other accounts.

It’s good advice if you get spam from real companies, like if from (say) some clothes store you’ve never been to or a web shop you’ve never ordered from (or if you have, but don’t want the ads anymore). For scam-spam, though, it would be counterproductive like you say.

The other way is to block the account or set your account to automatically send any you don’t want straight to spam.

Good mailers have automatic spam detection that you can enable (if it’s not on by default), which usually works fairly well — but it may be overzealous, so you may want to check new spam mails anyway to make sure there’s nothing in there that you actually do want to read.

My email doesn't have an automatic spam deletion as far as I know

Which mailer do you use?

I wonder how much good it would do if I forwarded all the mails to the respective companies they're supposed to represent with a message saying that's why I'll never buy their products?

That would be punishing the wrong target if the messages aren’t actually from those companies.

However, for spam that does come from the real company, I found it often works quite well to send them an e-mail that basically says, “I didn’t sign up for these e-mails, so they are spam. Please take me off your mailing list. If you send me any more such e-mails, I will report you to <your country’s anti-spam authority>.”

 

[Gern]

It’s good advice if you get spam from real companies, like if from (say) some clothes store you’ve never been to or a web shop you’ve never ordered from (or if you have, but don’t want the ads anymore). For scam-spam, though, it would be counterproductive like you say.


Good mailers have automatic spam detection that you can enable (if it’s not on by default), which usually works fairly well — but it may be overzealous, so you may want to check new spam mails anyway to make sure there’s nothing in there that you actually do want to read.


Which mailer do you use?


That would be punishing the wrong target if the messages aren’t actually from those companies.

However, for spam that does come from the real company, I found it often works quite well to send them an e-mail that basically says, “I didn’t sign up for these e-mails, so they are spam. Please take me off your mailing list. If you send me any more such e-mails, I will report you to <your country’s anti-spam authority>.”

Hi Jakko.

I suppose I could send emails to real companies to get unsubscribed - but you already said that anyone can use someone else's email address, so how do I know if it's the real company that sent me the email? How do I know it's not just some lowlife trying to put together a mailing list he can sell?

The mail system I have is Microsoft mail. I used to have their Live Mail programme which had a spam filter that worked really well for me, but when Microsoft had to re-boot my system last year when it stopped working, they told me that they didn't support it any more so I ended up with their new one.

I agree that targeting the companies may be unfair, but my thinking is that they advertise themselves as experts at protecting their customers and are paid millions every year to do just that. Why should it be down to me, a lone, unsophisticated, novice 'puter user, to solve the sort of problem they specialise in? Shouldn't they be concerned that someone is giving their company a bad name and do something to stop it? If they can't be bothered or don't know how, perhaps it's just as well I don't use their products.

Meantime, three more emails today trying to sell me their products.

PS I hope you don't think I'm having a go at you. It's just that I find it such a nuisance, it's nice to be able to talk to someone about it :smiling3:

 

[Ian M]

Not sure about where you are but in Denmark spam mail from real companies is illegal so not much of that in my in tray. If one gets in I just mark it as spam and never see them again.
Trick or fraud mails.... Plenty of those some better than others. Normally easy to spot as either the spelling or grammar or both are terrible. Others you can see are direct Google translate jobs and are hilarious.
Also if the mails I get are true I have about 10,000,000 Bitcoin hidden away in various accounts around the world.
I dis get a very good offer once when we started our bed and breakfast, a delegation from Japan needed accommodation and to make it easy they would forward £10,000 to my account and after the visit I could deduct my expenses and give the 'manager' of the guests the rest. I did reply to that one saying I would only do it if I got to keep £5000 myself, after expenses as the cost of laundry in very high in Denmark.
Cheeky bigger told ME to "go forth and procreate. Lol never heard from him again. Even after I forwarded his mail to electronic fraud department in DK.

 

[Guest]

I suppose I could send emails to real companies to get unsubscribed - but you already said that anyone can use someone else's email address, so how do I know if it's the real company that sent me the email? How do I know it's not just some lowlife trying to put together a mailing list he can sell?

You can usually tell by looking at the e-mails. If it looks like a shop and it’s trying to sell stuff, it probably is from that shop. Mails from financial institutions (including PayPal), though, are usually spam unless you really do have an account with them — and even then, it’s safest to never, ever click on any links in those mails. Rather, go to your bank’s (or whatever) site yourself in your web browser.

Also, you can check where links go before clicking on them: hover your mouse pointer over them (don’t click!) and you should get a popup that shows you where the link actually goes. For example, here’s an e-mail I got recently that appears to be from the Dutch bank, Rabobank (basically, it says I can get a more secure debit card):

View attachment 414140

There’s a link to rabobank.nl/kosteloos-vervangen in the mail — or so it seems. However, if I hover my mouse pointer (which isn’t in the image above) over it, the grey popup you can see in the screenshot appears and tells me where the link actually goes: usable-werewolf.10web.site/rb2. In other words: this is a phishing message, intended get me to type in my bank details so they can plunder my account. (FWIW, I don’t have an account at Rabobank so I’ve immediately ignored it anyway.)

They’re not all as obvious as the above, though. Before you click, compare any links carefully to make sure that they are exactly the same — ignoring the http:// or https:// at the start that may or may not be present, because that’s not important here.

In short: if you see what looks like a web site’s address, but holding your mouse pointer over it shows it goes to another address, then it’s a scam.

The mail system I have is Microsoft mail. I used to have their Live Mail programme which had a spam filter that worked really well for me, but when Microsoft had to re-boot my system last year when it stopped working, they told me that they didn't support it any more so I ended up with their new one.

A quick browse around seems to indicate that Windows 10 Mail (which I’m guessing is what you use) doesn’t have a spam filter built-in … If that’s true, I would advise you to switch to a better mailer.

I agree that targeting the companies may be unfair, but my thinking is that they advertise themselves as experts at protecting their customers and are paid millions every year to do just that.

You are getting spam from companies whose services are to protect computers?

 

[Gern]

Hi Jakko.

If I read you right, I can find the true source of an email by hovering my pointer over the sender's name - yes? If so that's really useful thanks.

Yes. It is Windows 10 I'm using. I wonder why they took the spam filter off? Any suggestions for a better system?

Ahh. I see what you mean. No, not from the companies directly. I was trying to suggest that Internet companies who specialise in virus protection etc. certainly have more resources to try and stop others using their names for illegal purposes. I'd be upset if someone sent a phoney email in my name and maybe got me a bad reputation, so why don't they seem bothered?

 

[Dave Ward]

Oddly enough after a week or so of no dodgy phone calls - I had four today - all telling me the same thing, that some one had ordered an iPad on my Amazon Prime account. Several things were wrong - I don't have, and never have had a Prime account - It was an automated call, starting " Dear Customer" - even Amazon don't do that! - the phonecall came through on my landline - I use my Mobile number on all my shopping/banking accounts!
I can understand people being upset about these calls/texts/emails, but surely if you have the skills to shop/browse/interact on line, you have the skills to check if they true?
Dave

 

[Graeme C.]

Dave, I had three calls from overseas numbers on my landline, missed the first, the second was an automated one telling me I had ordered Amazon Prime at £79.99 a month, the third just buzzed & clicked. All three numbers are now blocked.....

 

[Isitme]

I just received an email purporting to come from the NHS, with the subject line "important Appointment Confirmation Message on 09-February-21 14:57:11 BST Your NHS.co.uk order of "NHS health service Team UK..." and 1 more item(s) has been dispatched"

The sender's address was info@ti-piccolo.com

How low will these scammers stoop?

Pete

Look I have to earn a living, how on earth do you expect me to support one wife, four dogs and a model stash - have some sympathy. All I ask is that you send me your card details......

 

[wasdale32]

I used to get a lot of "Have you had an accident that wasn't your fault?" calls at work - my usual response was to ask "is that the one in which I died?" which always threw them and amused my office (remember them?) colleagues.

Working at home if I get a human being on the call I've taken to telling them I'm expecting a call on this line and can they ring back on my other line - I then give them the number of the local police cyber crime unit to call. Hopefully at least one of them falls for it.

 

[Guest]

If I read you right, I can find the true source of an email by hovering my pointer over the sender's name - yes? If so that's really useful thanks.

Not e-mail addresses, but the real site to which a link in the e-mail points. As you can see in the screenshot I posted, the link you can see in the message actually points to an entirely different site than it looks like it does.

This can work for e-mail addresses if they’re inside the message body, but not for the address(es) at the top of it (“From” etc.).

Yes. It is Windows 10 I'm using. I wonder why they took the spam filter off?

That’s always the question when software developers remove useful features …

Any suggestions for a better system?

I’ve not used mail on a Windows PC for about 20 years, so unfortunately, no

 

[Guest]

All three numbers are now blocked.....

That’s probably pointless because they’re almost guaranteed to have been spoofed, and likely just a random number anyway. On the other hand, of course, the real owner of the number (if there is one) is unlikely to ever call you, so it’s not going to be much of a problem.

I get a fair number (once every couple of weeks at least) phone calls with foreign numbers. If I answer, either there’s a bit of silence and the line disconnects, or someone begins speaking in English with a South Asian accent, using words like “Microsoft” and “tech support”. At that point I just hang up.

 

[stillp]

Look I have to earn a living, how on earth do you expect me to support one wife, four dogs and a model stash - have some sympathy. All I ask is that you send me your card details......

Sorry Mike. I'll put you in touch with a friend who can help you out - he's a Nigerian prince, worth millions.
Pete

 

[Guest]

That reminds me Years ago, in World of Warcraft you’d get people striking up a conversation with you in order to try and sell you gold (in-game money), for which they would charge real money at some exchange rate — 100 gold per US$1 or something. This quickly got very tiring, so after a while, I bookmarked a web site with real messages from Nigerian scammers. Every time one of these gold sellers approached me, I’d switch to my web browser, open that site and choose a random scammer’s letter on it. Then in reply to whatever the gold seller said to me, I would copy and paste a line from that message, starting at the top and working my way down. Most gave up before I was a couple of lines in

 

[wasdale32]

That reminds me :smiling3: Years ago, in World of Warcraft you’d get people striking up a conversation with you in order to try and sell you gold (in-game money), for which they would charge real money at some exchange rate — 100 gold per US$1 or something. This quickly got very tiring, so after a while, I bookmarked a web site with real messages from Nigerian scammers. Every time one of these gold sellers approached me, I’d switch to my web browser, open that site and choose a random scammer’s letter on it. Then in reply to whatever the gold seller said to me, I would copy and paste a line from that message, starting at the top and working my way down. Most gave up before I was a couple of lines in :smiling3:

I keep a folder of "To Good To Be True..." emails at work - the best is probably the one offering off-prescription meds that claimed to "dramatically increase organism"